Hidden inheritance

Chapter 22: What if: Goodbye And Good Riddance

"You saved the world all summer, dude. How tough can fifth grade be?" he told himself.

As boring and nerdy as it sounded, Ben felt he'd be better at school now that summer was over. It was either that or spending his days with his parents lying through their teeth about him. It still felt discouraging to come back there on his own though.

No aliens, no Plumbers, no bad guys... just his boring old normal life again. Anyone would beg to have three months worth of superhero adventures and space shenanigans, packed with superpowers and an alien watch that made him invincible...

Yeah, right.

Carl and Sandra hadn't noticed anything off, except for Ben asking them several times about where babies came from, if it hurt to have one, which hospital he was supposedly born in and if Max's job was involved in it somehow. Well, he tried, he couldn't exactly get past the first two questions. When he got back home, all his chores from before summer caught up to him, leaving him busy with things he should've taken care of before leaving the town.

The whole trip back to Bellwood, he and Max had stayed silent. Gwen attempted to break the ice by talking about her composition class, only to get frustrated at the responses. Apparently, saying 'uhuh', 'cool' or any other passive variation more than five times in a row was enough to warrant a faceplant into the table from her. Some more space would do them all good.

Speaking of which, Ben had yet to get news from his bodyguards.

He managed to sneak the Forever Ninja into the back of the RV after taking down some bird weirdos, it was one out of three. Sixsix and Kraab were away, looking for a way to get back to Earth since Tetrax had to drop them off somewhere where they wouldn't look like they were following Ben. Something told him he didn't need to tell his dad about their issue, otherwise he might do something about their salary.

It wasn't going to be all bad, it's not like bad guys would have the guts to attack him in public where everyone would see them and try to stop them, right?

Before he could ponder any further on the matter, a metal lasso caught him by the leg, stopping him in his tracks and pulling him into the top of a tree next to the school. He barely yelped as he was taken away, landing on a branch hidden by many leaves.

Instinctively, he brought his hand to the watch. He hadn't expected to be back in business so soon, but he wasn't complaining. He was stopped by two armored hands he knew well. Ben immediately smiled as he recognized the two bounty hunters, having camouflaged himself on the top of the tree.

"Young master, wait!" interrupted Kraab, followed by a grunt from the Sotoraggian. "It's us!"

"Guys!" exclaimed Ben. "About time! I was getting impatient, where were you at?"

Sixsix explained through grunts Kraab translated. "We were about to leave T-K after taking a rental when Vulkanus came and tried to get Sixsix back to working with him. It was tedious telling him 'no' several times, he even threatened us. Oh, and Sixsix wants to add, he's annoyed we didn't have enough money left to get you a souvenir."

Ben laughed, relieved they would at least stay around. It was already difficult having Carl drive him to school when he had to pretend to listen, and he felt too tense to ask about Max or Vilgax when the day was just starting. He felt so much better knowing Sixsix and Kraab would have his back.

Though past the two first weeks, he'd eventually have to talk to Vilgax.

..............................................................................................................................

"Alright! Now we're talking!" said Ben, his frown turning into a smirk.

While gym class was starting, aliens wearing red and black suits with a belt and grey goggles with straight yellow lenses, just randomly crashed through the wall with pickaxes. Ben doubted it had anything to do with dodgeball, which meant it was his turn to play.